Today, Governor Cuomo announced that the Federal Highway Administration has signed off on the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project. The approval was the largest regulatory hurdle remaining before construction, which the state aims to begin within several months, although the construction firm that will build the bridge has yet to be named. The next major hurdle for the state is identifying funding to pay for construction of the bridge (the state has applied for a low-interest federal loan that would finance part of it).

Notably absent from elected officials’ comments in the press release was any mention of transit, even though, according to New York State’s own documents, “New Transit is [the] only way to relieve congestion and improve mobility in the [I-287] corridor.”  After the project was fast-tracked last October, transit was dropped from bridge replacement plans, despite widespread consensus in the region that it should be part of any reconstruction. New York State has agreed to convene a task force on transit as part of a compromise to get essential local support for the project, but that committee has yet to form. According to an August release, its recommendations are due within a year.

Tri-State Executive Director Veronica Vanterpool issued the following statement today:

Governor Cuomo’s announcement that the Tappan Zee Bridge project has cleared environmental review is good news for New York State, but to comprehensively address the mobility challenges of the Hudson Valley much more work remains. Although the traffic-weary Lower Hudson Valley community has repeatedly demanded transit in the I-287 corridor, the project that federal regulators just cleared does not answer their call. Rockland and Westchester residents will continue to sit in traffic on I-287 unless a true east-west transit system is quickly added to the corridor. The Regional Transit Task Force promised by Governor Cuomo must begin a serious conversation about transit promptly, and its recommendations must be implemented with the same urgency and speed that have marked the other aspects of the project under his watch.